However, it took practically no time at all for the Pixel Fold to overcome those collective downsides. It’s far from a perfect gadget, but this is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I’ve grown to like a lot about the first-gen Pixel Fold, but there are also some nagging frustrations that I hope to see rectified in the upcoming Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
It’s easy to ignore the bigger screen
The first thing I learned was that when you’ve got an adequate phone on the outside, you won’t open the inner display as frequently as you might expect — at least once the honeymoon phase wears off. The Fold’s exterior screen is perfectly usable for most of what I do with a smartphone. I usually unfold it when I want to watch YouTube, Netflix, or check the news with The New York Times app. Sure, I’ve multitasked with two apps at once on occasion — and Google has made that workflow easier with software updates — but it’s not a common scenario. I’m still mostly using the large canvas to focus on one thing a a time, albeit with far greater immersion.
This thing desperately needs a brightness boost
From day one, my primary gripe with the Pixel Fold has always been its display brightness — or lack thereof. Only a few months after its release last year, the $1,700 device was outshined by the significantly more affordable Pixel 8 series and Google’s new Actua / Super Actua displays. They get extremely bright and are no trouble to use outdoors. With the Fold, I’ve constantly got the brightness slider up over 80 percent, which doesn’t do its battery life any favors. It can be a struggle to see this phone when the sun is shining, and the very reflective inner screen only makes things worse.
If there’s one weakness I’m relatively confident Google is going to fix the second time around, it’s this lack of pop. All indications are that the company will bring its latest (and brightest) display tech to its second-gen foldable.
The other key improvement I hope to see is a lighter frame. The Pixel Fold is one seriously hefty phone, even for me — a 6’1” man with big hands — and can get taxing to hold over time.
The battery life has gotten me by
I wasn’t expecting miracles from the Pixel Fold’s battery endurance. Is it fair to want that from any foldable? Plus, Google’s Tensor chips have never been known for efficiency. But even on days when the large display barely got any use, the Fold did… fine. It wasn’t always a lock that there would be much juice remaining when I got home after a long day, but the phone almost always made it. Like other Pixels, the Fold can sometimes charge at a snail’s pace when you’re actively using it while plugged in. Overall, its stamina is trounced by the more conventional Pixel 8 Pro, but that’s to be expected when you’re pitting two screens against one.
